Prinz-Wilhelm-Eisenbahn

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Line number:

2723

Gauge:

1435 mm

Legend

Bahnstrecke Aachen–Kassel to Wuppertal Hbf

Division of the lines

0,2

Wuppertal-Vohwinkel

Bahnstrecke Aachen–Kassel to Düsseldorf

Crossing of the Rheinischen Strecke

2,8

Dornap closed 1970

4,7

Wülfrath-Aprath closed 1964, re-opened 2003

5,8

to the Niederbergbahn to Wülfrath

separation of new and old routes

8,8

Velbert Rosenhügel

10,0

terminal station

separation of new and old routes

12,5

Velbert-Neviges

12,8

Neviges

15,1

Kuhlendahl

18,5

Velbert-Langenberg

20,9

Velbert-Nierenhof

25,8

Essen-Kupferdreh

26,3

from the Ruhrtalbahn

Old Kupferdreh station

Essen-Holthausen

Essen-Überruhr

on to Steele see Ruhrtalbahn

The Prinz-Wilhelm-Eisenbahn (Prince Wilhelm Railway) was the first horse-drawn railway in Germany.

The Deilthaler Eisenbahn Aktiengesellschaft (Deilthaler Railway Company), created in 1828, built it as a narrow gauge (82 cm) line that ran for a Prussian mile (7,532 metres) along the Deilbach valley from Hinsbeck, a suburb of Kupferdreh (now part of Essen), to Nierenhof near Langenberg (now part of Velbert). On 20 September 1831 the railway was opened by Prinz Wilhelm, the brother of the King of Prussia at the time, and renamed in honour of the prince.

It operated as a horse-drawn railway carrying coal until 1844, but from 1833 it also carried passengers. In 1847, it was converted to standard gauge, extended north to Steele Süd and south to Vohwinkel (in Wuppertal), converted to steam operation and renamed the Steele-Vohwinkler Eisenbahn. The route is now used by line 9 of the Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn.

[edit] References

This article is based on a translation of the article Prinz-Wilhelm-Eisenbahn from the German Wikipedia.
Prinz-Wilhelm-Eisenbahn - Die erste Eisenbahn-Aktiengesellschaft auf deutschem Boden, J. Rainer Busch and H.G. Deilmann, Essen 1992 (German)